Hey guys/gals, I don't know much about racing but maybe some of you do. The Tony Steward/Kevin Ward Jr. accident last...is it normal for someone to go that far on to the track the way Kevin Ward Jr did?

Also, if you listen to the video with the audio, you can hear Tony gun his engine but the camera angle doesn't catch all of it...(the true video is graphic)...did he hit him on purpose or was he trying to scare him by getting really close to him and then accidentally hits him?

I know everyone mentions marc gasol as the knicks will go after in 2015, but their is a guy no one is talking about that is a free agent and his name is AL Jefferson on Charlotte.....what do u guys think of him?

FYI: Mark Warkentien has a super long history in and out of the NBA. He was Jerry Tarkanian's assistant at UNLV, he jumped to the NBA as a scout for the Supersonics, he was hired by the Nuggets as an assistant in the front office and replaced Kiki V as GM of Denver. He won exec of the year as GM of Denver in 2009. I think he may have also been a GM of the Cavs for a minute.

What I'm saying is that he's no Steve Mills , he's actually a basketball guy.

What some people don't understand...is "Moneyball"...the baseball term for production on the dollar doesn't work in the NBA. Don't take my word for it....here is Mark Cubans take of the "/younger/cheaper/stats" analysis:

context. We assign credit and blame for on-court successes and failures to individual players, as if it were baseball. It’s been called the Moneyball effect. Ever since Michael Lewis dropped that Billy Beane love letter, many of us in the analytics community have been obsessed with creating Moneyball for basketball; we’ve been on a grand quest to identify a unified theory of basketball success. However, on the way to mimicking the wonderful strides of baseball analytics, we forgot to consider how drastically different the two games are. In reality, baseball is only kind of a team sport; basketball is entirely a team sport.

From an analytics perspective, baseball is checkers; basketball is chess. One could even argue that assigning any individual credit in basketball is a fool’s errand, and that contemporary basketball analytics erroneously conflate the circumstances of a player’s environment with his individual ability.

According to Cuban, “It’s not like Moneyball in baseball, where analytics are a good way to determine who to sign or who not to sign, unless where they were is analogous to where you’re trying to bring them. [A basketball player] might have X number of win shares on a team that likes to push the ball, and a team that slows it down is a different beast. A guy might be a great rebounder if a team keeps him close to the basket, but if we show on pick-and-rolls or play zone, those numbers are going to be very different.”1

Example: Monta Ellis-

In Dallas, Ellis’s shooting efficiency has improved in every area. He’s getting to the basket more, and converting more of his opportunities when he gets there. Ellis has gone from below average to above average in the midrange, and has become one of the best guards in the league from the right elbow. His 3-point percentage is up, too.

Ellis is quick to point out he’s able to be more finicky with his shot selection this year, in part because he shares the floor with more offensive firepower than he had back in Milwaukee.

“Playing with a group of guys that defenses respect takes a load off of me, so I don’t have to be 75 percent of the offense,” he says. “I can do 45 percent and it frees me up to contribute in other ways to help the team.”

He has been fortunate in terms of making his moves. He made sure that he was going to a better situation and took less to make the Miami deal work. Cleveland went from 61 to 19 wins, enabling them to get the assets to put a strong team around him. Now he has attracted Love, who is forcing a trade to form another Big 3.

I often wonder what we would have been able to do if Melo came as a free agent.

The original aspects of "Moneyball" back in the day involved trying to identify players whose on the field production was undervalued. The classic example was overvaluing BA and undervaluing OBP. The A's were able to sign players that walked more than the average player and get more bang for the limited bucks they had to spend.

There are relationships in terms of basketball being a soft-capped sport. Teams that can identify value players that will contribute, within their system will prosper. Look at the Spurs finding players off the scrapheap that have great value within their system, yet little value elsewhere. Take guys like Boris Diaw, Danny Green, and Patty Mills, who are very productive as Spurs.

The problem with the Knicks is that we have switched from D'Antoni's 7SOL to Woody's slow, deliberate attack to Phil's triangle in the span of what will be 4 seasons. We need some continuity and consistency. We need to draft and sign players that will fit within what we do. Hopefully in a year or two, the system will be established and the roster constructed to maximize it's effectiveness.

As much as I hate to admit it, you are 100% right 2dullah2. Le brons teams are favorites cause of him n everyone wants to play with him. I am sure ray Allen n Shawn Marion will sign with cavs soon enough.

@Knicks_Fanatic@MeloStat301 I agree...establish a culture..system...and plug guys accordingly into pieces that fit. Some guy on a team who isn't producing..and being "overpaid" can go to a team that system fits him and play up to his contract...that's the whole point of "moneyball" not working in the NBA. Baseball you can do a lot more things individually...than you can in basketball.

Mark Cuban does overstate the case a bit. For instance, moving a rebounder further away from the basket is no different than getting a right handed power hitter to play in Yankee Stadium or expecting a Rockies player to continue his production playing elsewhere. Baseball does have other factors beyond an individual's skill.

LeBron is going to be LeBron, no matter where he plays. Melo is going to be Melo. You have finite resources to build a team around them. Using advanced statistics as part of the process is what all NBA teams are currently doing.

If you look at Bargnani from a Moneyball perspective, you could have easily predicted that he would be a poor fit on the Knicks. Likewise, Novak, who had value to the 54-28 team, wouldn't be able to replicate that in Toronto.

I still don't understand why we wanted Felton back after he got run out of Denver and Portland. He led a mutiny against Nate McMillan. He was out of shape. He was never more than a below average player, except for half a season under D'Antoni.

@Knicks_FanaticPeople are forever trying to analyze the ineffable, using algorithms and analytics are tools popularwith this generation of "money-people" to explain the world. If only it was that easy?

There is a place for them but I don't believe you can lead by them. For instance according the "analytics" it has been "proven" that Derek Jeter is an average to not so great shortstop. People will actually argue this as fact. Yet we know he's one of the best baseball players we've ever seen. Anybody who would disagree with that is a bloody idiot, sorry analytics you lose that one.

Look at the stock market and the leading economic indicators every day and the stock market has never in it's history been higher, and the economy is the strongest on earth. According to the stats, people in the USA should be living better than ever before and better than anyone else. Yet for most of people in the US that are not the 1% its harder than ever to do everything from buy groceries to get our kids an education. The stats say one thing, the real world says another.

So I am not dismissing analytics at all just pointing out that they are one tool we can use to assess a player's value or productivity, but sometimes the wrong tool, or a tool that is given too much weight in the discussion.

It was Mark Twain who said; There are liars, damn-liars and statisticians.

Numbers-people can make the numbers do whatever they want, this is NY home of Wallstreet, they invented the Numbers hustle

He's just one of the worst defensive high profile players in the league (if not THE worst, GOOD LORD he's awful), who already thinks he's done enough in this league to criticize teammates and believe he can carry a team by himself.

@KingTkB@VerySilentJay To compare him to Mello is a travesty (and I'm no Melo apologist, far from it, and to use contracts as your main argument means, in my book, that you haven't followed the player close enough.